


just grow old with me

by Marvellous



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Drabble, Established Relationship, Fluff, Growing Old Together, M/M, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 14:43:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21393892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvellous/pseuds/Marvellous
Summary: They were nearing fifty and never in Dennis’ life could he remember feeling so carefree, like life itself wasn’t a crushing burden that was suffocating him, threatening the collapse of his weak lungs. Of course, they weren’t exactly miserable all the time before, but all of a sudden, without the bar in their lives, it was like there was a big hole that didn’t know how to fill itself so it sort of flooded with a whole bunch of good. It could have gone the other way. It didn’t.
Relationships: Mac McDonald/Dennis Reynolds
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	just grow old with me

**Author's Note:**

> obsessed with mac and dennis getting old together w that happy ending they maybe don't deserve but maybe kind of do with each other. 
> 
> for once my title hasn't come inspired from a song! imagine that

The bar burned down.

Dennis remembered the morning after, it was nothing but a pile of rubble and ash. Nothing was left really except for the bricks, everything they’d ever kept inside was burnt and gone and all at once the gang was untethered. Floating. Their life, their business, the one thing that was a constant, it was suddenly gone in a puff of smoke. They didn’t cry over it. Sometimes things just ended, and that was that.

Frank left, said something about wanting to waste away on his own without their stupid asses around. He left them all money, a strange parting gift. They all knew Charlie got the most, but it didn’t matter. 

Charlie got a new apartment, said it was time for him to move on, and then came the six cats. They weren’t just any cats though, the six new ones had names and hadn’t even started out in his ragtag group of strays, they were different in Charlie’s eyes. They each had their own instagram account and the captions were solely emojis. Superstars in their own right. He was happy. 

Dee was happy too. She must have been because she hardly ever called, she got a girlfriend and they saw less of her, and any time they did see her, she wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as Dennis remembered. He wondered if it was the same the other way around, if she saw him becoming a duller more watered-down version of himself. If so, that was okay. He was okay with that. If things were a little less loud and his life made a little more sense, so be it.

Mac and him. Now, they were really happy. He knew that. He could only guess about the others, only surface level emotions and expressions, but he always knew Mac more than that. It was deeper. And it was enough for him to know without a doubt in their mind that they were over the moon, ridiculously, happy. 

They were nearing fifty and never in Dennis’ life could he remember feeling so carefree, like life itself wasn’t a crushing burden that was suffocating him, threatening the collapse of his weak lungs. Of course, they weren’t exactly miserable all the time before, but all of a sudden, without the bar in their lives, it was like there was a big hole that didn’t know how to fill itself so it sort of flooded with a whole bunch of good. It could have gone the other way. It didn’t. 

Not to say everything was perfect. 

It was fucking close, though.

Their apartment stayed more or less the same. On occasion, they’d rearrange the living room, and then a day later move it back. Their room had more blankets, far too many pillows. Shelves filled with more pictures of both of them because at some point they realized they both wanted that. Mac’s room transitioned from an abandoned bedroom to a glorified storage closet, amassing all their shit from their endeavors. Skiis, bikes, outdoor gear. Generally used once and discarded, but hey, it’s the thought that counts. Sometimes, if the stars aligned and the planets were positioned ever so carefully, they’d even book it to the country for a weekend and still use some of it. 

For the most part, they were simply content to stay in their little world. It was warm, and together, it was safe. 

With their yellow dining room table and a game of battleship between them, it was good.

Mac concentrated on his board with his tongue between his lips and Dennis smiled softly as his foot hooked around the other’s ankle.

“Stop trying to distract me, I am figuring out a strategy here,” Mac huffed.

“Of course. You keep at that, pal,” Dennis hummed and pushed the glasses he was wearing further up the bridge of his nose to study his own side of the board. 

Mac laughed, “I will, and then I’m just gonna win again, because you always suck at this game.”

Dennis crossed his arms, “I do not!”

Mac smirked, because he knew that he did.

Rolling his eyes at the smugness of it all, Dennis caught sight of his phone lighting up with some random notification and realized it was quarter after midnight. It was late, and unfortunately he couldn’t pretend he was young anymore, suddenly feeling the ache in his shoulders and, well, pretty much everywhere. Then the date clicked in Dennis’ head. “Hey,” he said quietly as he reached over to take Mac’s hand in his, stifling a yawn at the same time, “You know what today is?”

Mac raised his eyebrows, eyes wide, “No...what?” 

Dennis watched Mac’s eyes for a moment, they had turned more green with age but they were still the same despite it, and his hair was more salt than pepper, those smile lines were definitely wrinkles now, and somehow it wasn’t too scary seeing his best friend, his partner, aging like that. It was slow and gradual and Dennis didn’t really notice until he had time to think about it, in turn making it less of a shock, and it meant they were getting old together. Like it always should have been. It was kind of nice, in a way.

“Dennis. Tell me,” Mac whined, refusing to flip his hand over to hold Dennis’. 

Dennis knocked the back of their hands together so that their cheap silver rings clinked against one another, “Five years.”

Mac hummed thoughtfully and turned his palm up to give in to holding Dennis’ hand, giving it a light squeeze, “Oh…”

“You know what, actually...it’s been pretty good,” Dennis breathed, leaning into his elbows on the table, “Better than I thought.”

Eyebrows creasing, Mac looked a little offended, “You thought...what, you thought it wouldn’t be?”

Dennis winced, “No, no, no. I mean, yah. I just-I thought things would change? You know? I thought that we’d be together and get married and then do that thing where people fall out of love...or something?” 

Mac listened to Dennis with a tilt to his head, letting his words sink in, “That is pretty stupid, Dennis.”

Dennis glared.

“After over, uhm, what, twenty years, you thought things would change?” Mac chuckled, “You say I’m an idiot.” 

Smiling, Dennis picked up their empty cups of tea and stood to take them to the sink, “Not really. You, you’re not really an idiot. Mac, you’re actually pretty smart, in a lot of ways. I hope you know that I know that.”

Mac started putting away their game, suddenly the interest in strategy and winning was lost at the promise of a warm bed to crawl into, “Thanks, Den.”

Dennis sighed contentedly, rinsing off the cups before he turned back to Mac, who was watching him strangely as he leaned back in his chair, “What?”

“Nothing,” Mac shrugged, smiling too big for it to be nothing.

Quirking an eyebrow, Dennis didn’t even need to say anything for Mac to continue.

“Me and you, it’s always just...okay, there’s not a chance we could ever have fallen out of love because I can’t even remember the moment I fell in love with you?” Mac stood up and the smile was bigger now, “Looking back on things...I see a bunch of moments where I knew it, but it was never, like, in my face. It just was a thing I always knew, before my feelings or whatever caught up and I let myself say it. I never fell or anything, I just was always...here. And that, that makes sense, right? Cause we’re way more different than any other random couple out there. We’re, like, soulmates.” 

Dennis let his fingers gently run over the back of Mac’s neck as he nodded slowly, “Yah.” 

Mac’s eyebrows did that puppy dog thing and he was kissing Dennis before he could say anything else.

Yah, they were like soulmates.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos/comments always much appreciated <3


End file.
